"Never!"
"Well, if you were not wounded, after what you have told me, I should send my Cossacks to Rashkoff to-day and have a monk brought here, and to-morrow I should be your husband. Then what? It is a sin not to love your husband and fondle him. Ai! you high mighty lady, the love of a Cossack is an offence, an anger to you. And who are you that I am for you a peasant? Where are your castles and boyars and troops? At what are you angry,--at what are you offended? I took you in war; you are a captive. If I were a peasant, I should teach you reason on the white shoulders with the whip, and without a priest would have enough of your beauty,--if I were a peasant, not a knight!"
"Angels of heaven, save me!" whispered the princess.
But in the mean while greater and greater fury rose to the face of Bogun, and anger seized him by the hair.
"I know," said he, "why you"re offended, why you resist me. You preserve for another your maiden modesty. But in vain, as I live, as I am a Cossack! Nakedness[15] the n.o.ble! The insincere, miserable Pole barely saw you, merely turned with you in the dance,--death to him!--and took you captive altogether. Then let the Cossack suffer, break his head. But I will reach this Pole, and I will order him torn out of his skin, will nail him up. Do you know that Hmelnitski is marching on the Poles, and I go with him; and I will find your dove even under the ground, and when I return I will throw his head at your feet as a present."
Helena did not hear the last words of the ataman. Pain, anger, wounds, emotion, terror, took her strength; an immeasurable weakness came upon all her limbs, her eyes and her thoughts grew dark, and she fell into a swoon.
The chief stood some time, pale from anger, with foam on his lips. Then he saw the lifeless head hanging back powerless, and from his lips went out a roar almost unearthly. "It is all over with her! Horpyna!
Horpyna!" And he threw himself on the floor.
The giantess rushed into the room with all speed. "What is the matter?"
"Help! help!" cried Bogun. "I have killed her, my soul, my light!"
"What! Did you scold her?"
"I have killed her, I have killed her!" groaned he; and he wrung his hands over his head.
But Horpyna, approaching the princess, soon discovered that it was not death, but a deep faint, and putting Bogun outside the door, began to a.s.sist her. The princess opened her eyes after a time.
"My dear, there is nothing the matter with you," said the enchantress.
"You were frightened at him, I see, and darkness settled on you; but the darkness will pa.s.s and health will come. You are like a nut, my girl; you have long to live in the world and enjoy happiness."
"Who are you?" asked the princess, with a weak voice.
"I? Your servant, for he so ordered it."
"Where am I?"
"In the Devil"s Glen. A pure wilderness here; you will see no one but him."
"Do you live here?"
"My farm is here. I am Dontsovna. My brother is a colonel under Bogun; he leads young heroes, and I stay here, and will care for you in this golden chamber. From a cottage it has become a bower, so that light gleams from it. He has brought all this for you."
Helena looked at the lively face of the young woman, and it seemed to her full of sincerity.
"But will you be good to me?"
The white teeth of the young witch gleamed in a smile. "I shall; why shouldn"t I? But do you be good also to the ataman. He is a falcon, he is a glorious hero, he will--"
Here the witch bent to the ear of Helena, whispered something, then burst into laughter.
"Be off!" screamed the princess.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI.
Two days later in the morning Horpyna sat with Bogun under the willow near the mill-wheel, and looked at the water foaming on it.
"You will be careful of her, you will guard her, you will not let your eye off her, so that she shall never leave the glen."
"The glen has a narrow neck near the river, but there is s.p.a.ce enough here. Order the neck to be filled with stones, and we shall be as if in the bottom of a jug. When I need to go out I shall find a way."
"How do you live here?"
"Cheremis plants corn under the cliffs, cultivates grapes, and snares wild fowl. With what you have brought she will want nothing unless bird"s milk. Have no fear! She will not leave the glen, and no one will know of her unless your men say she is here."
"I have made them swear silence. They are faithful fellows; they will say nothing, even if straps were torn from their skin. But you said yourself that people came here to you as to a soothsayer."
"Sometimes they come from Rashkoff, and sometimes when they hear of me they come from G.o.d knows what places. But they stay at the river; no one enters the glen, for they are afraid. You saw the bones. These were people who wished to enter; their bones are lying around."
"Did you kill them?"
"Whoever killed them, killed them! Those in search of soothsaying wait at the opening of the glen and I go to the wheel. What I see in the water, I tell them. I shall examine for you directly, but I don"t know whether anything will be seen, for it does not always appear."
"If only you see nothing bad!"
"If I see something bad, you will not go; and in that case it would be better not to go."
"I must. Hmelnitski sent me a letter to Bar to return, and Krivonos ordered me. The Poles are marching on us now with great forces, so we must concentrate."
"When will you come back?"
"I know not. There will be a great battle such as has not been yet.
Either death to us or to the Poles. If they beat us, I will hide here; if we are victorious, I will come for my cuckoo and take her to Kieff."
"And if you perish?"
"Being a witch, it is for you to tell."
"But if you perish?"
"Once my mother bore me."
"Oh, pshaw! But what shall I do with the girl,--twist her neck, or how?"
"But touch her with your hand and I will have you drawn on a stake with oxen." The chief fell into gloomy thought. "If I perish, tell her to forgive me."
"Ah, she is a thankless Pole that for such love she does not love. If I were wooed in that way, I should not resist you." Saying this, Horpyna nudged the chief in the side twice, showing all her teeth in laughter.